Sister Canine and her dream

Wat’s wit dat calamus root?

In Calamus poems, Walt Whitman wrote “How could I answer the child?... I do not know what it is any more than [s]he. I guess it must be the flag of my disposition…Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord… designedly dropped, Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we may see and remark, and say Whose? "
(see Like the Lace Handkerchief www.gertrudekreigh.blogspot.com)

Or in an Antiremus tale inspired by Chandler Harris: 'You ain't got no root, is you, Sista Rev? I done got so now dat I can't eat no ting 'ceppin she's seasoned up wid calamus root.' En wid dat Sista Canine lipt out er de do' and dodge 'mong the bushes, en sot dar watchin' for Sista Rev; en she ain't watch long, nudder, kaze Sista Rev flung off de flannil en crope out er de house en got whar she could cloze in on Sista Canine, en bimeby Sista Canine holler out: 'Oh, Sista Rev! I'll des put yo' calamus root out yer on dish yer stump. Better come git it while hit's fresh,' and wid dat Sista Canine gallop off home.

Home sweet home.